Sunday, August 14, 2016

NPC Ideas

Back
when I wrote Character Foundry, I was assuming that most GMs’ minds worked as
mine does - tons of ideas, and they just needed to be focused.Well, I’ve heard from some of the readers,
and it is clear that not all GMs think this way.But I can still help.

I
took off for a weekend last month

Just
to try and recall the whole year.

All
of the faces and all of the places,

Jimmy
Buffett

No
really - That’s the trick.

So
you’re trying to come up with some ideas to fill out your town or city.You need some NPCs for the players to
interact with, but you’re not really focused on anything particular.The next time you sit down to lunch in a
public place (restaurant, cafeteria, whatever), look around at the other
tables.Most are just “people” with
their heads down and nothing for you to work with, but there will be a couple
that show you a true glimpse of their lives.Maybe it’s that cute girl talking on the telephone and literally telling
you (and everyone within earshot) all about her new boyfriend.She’s easy to turn into an NPC.Maybe it’s the mother with three young
kids.Is she disciplining them or
letting them run wild?Does she look
like she has her act together or is her stroller leaking toys and other
items?Bet you can just let your mind
run for a minute or two and come up with a whole back story based on her.

OK,
those are random NPCs, and you need something more specific.You need a mayor, or king, or
ruler-type.Think back to your high school
principal.Was he/she a tyrant?someone who desperately wanted to be cool and
accepted by the students?a complete incompetent?Use that!Even if it is only your opinion of how the person was, use that.Make this NPC your high school principal.

Dislike
using real people?OK, last film you saw
- who was the bad guy’s henchman?Don’t
use the main bad guy, because that is likely to be noticed by your players, but
the minor characters - you can easily transport them into your game as
NPCs.But remember to make them your
own.Just because you are basing the NPC
on some movie or TV character doesn’t mean that that is how they must
stay.Maybe the character died in the
movie, so you don’t know how they might have grown.That’s better, because now you need to
role-play how they end up.All you’re
really borrowing is some back story and some personality traits.You don’t need to use them as the next
mission’s bad guy or bad guy’s henchman.They might make a great follower for your players.After all, how much work do you really put
into NPC bad guys that are likely to die?But if he is a follower, then he’ll be around for a while and may need a
back story and a personality.

The
point is that you have a lifetime of experience to draw on.You’ve probably met a million people in your
life.Few of them are memorable, but
some are.Some can serve as the base for
NPCs in your world.

If
you are still having problems, Character Foundry can help, especially with how
you “make them your own”.A Baker’s Dozen Villains is pretty good if you need major bad guys.We know you can do it on your own, but
sometimes you just don’t have the time.

1 comment:

This article really made me think; your examples pointed to personality traits rather than background. That is something that in my arrogance in 20+ years of roleplaying had caused me to overlook...defining how NPCs interact, as opposed to who and what they are, where they come from and what they do. I've been writing down NPC ideas in my Keep notes as I have been trying to flesh out my setting, but in my descriptions I haven't been focusing on what could be considered the most important aspect of their character as far as storytelling goes...their Voice, capital 'V'. It was always something that I sort of looked upon with disdain when generating a random set of NPCs at donjon.bin.sh and other NPC guides, the quirks! I always thought 'beligerent' or 'shy' or 'tells bad jokes', 'nervous laugh', etc. we're too simplistic...but I was looking at it all wrong! Those are the things that have made great NPCs work for me, indeed the very reason they, or a PC, get remembered and cherished...good roleplaying.Now I've got some work to do...

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